Mapping Disinformation During the Covid-19 in Indonesia: Qualitative Content Analysis - Jurnal ASPIKOM
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Jurnal ASPIKOM, Vol. 6, No. 2, July 2021, pp. 222-234
P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24329/aspikom.v6i2.907 ◼ 222
Mapping Disinformation During the Covid-19 in Indonesia:
Qualitative Content Analysis
Pemetaan Disinformasi Selama Pandemi Covid-19 di Indonesia:
Analisis Isi Kualitatif
Devie Rahmawati1*, Deddy Mulyana 2, Giri Lumakto3, Mila Viendyasari4,
Wiratri Anindhita5
1,3,4Universitas Indonesia, Jl. Margonda Raya, Pondok Cina, Depok, Indonesia
2Universitas Padjajaran, Jl. Raya Bandung Sumedang KM 21, Bandung, Indonesia
5Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jl. Ramawangun Muka Raya No.11, Jakarta, Indonesia
*Corresponding author, e-mail: devie.r@ui.ac.id
Abstract
During life-threatening situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic, disinformation is rife.
While people project their affective aspects into understanding the situation, their fear of Covid-
19 interferes with their logical and reasonable assessment of disinformation. Less credible
information such as rumors becomes reliable for some people. This study aims to map the
disinformation category based on the Ministry of Communication and Information report from
January to March 2020. There are 359 hoaxes with five categories and 30 sub-categories. This
study uses qualitative content analysis as a method. The study results revealed that most of the
disinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic was related to the spread of hoaxes on health
issues. This research implies that several recommendations are made to respond to the urgency
of handling disinformation during Covid-19 in Indonesia, such as initiating digital literacy and
media literacy in the national education system.
Keywords: Content analysis; Covid-19; Disinformation; Qualitative
Abstrak
Selama situasi yang mengancam jiwa seperti pandemi Covid-19, disinformasi menyebar
luas. Sementara orang memproyeksikan aspek afektif mereka dalam memahami situasi,
ketakutan mereka terhadap Covid-19 mengganggu penilaian logis dan masuk akal mereka
terhadap disinformasi. Informasi yang kurang kredibel seperti rumor menjadi dapat diandalkan
untuk beberapa orang. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memetakan kategori disinformasi
berdasarkan laporan Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informasi dari Januari hingga Maret 2020.
Terdapat 359 hoax dengan 5 kategori dan 30 sub kategori. Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis
isi kualitatif sebagai metode. Hasil penelitian mengungkapkan bahwa sebagian besar
disinformasi selama pandemi Covid-19 terkait penyebaran hoax isu kesehatan. Implikasi dari
penelitian ini mengemukakan beberapa rekomendasi menanggapi urgensi penanganan
disinformasi selama Covid-19 di Indonesia, seperti menginisiasi literasi digital dan literasi
media dalam sistem pendidikan nasional
Kata Kunci: Analisis konten; Covid-19; Disinformasi; Kualitatif
Article History: Received January 25, 2021; Revised March 27, 2021; Accepted June 5, 2021223 ◼ P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309
Introduction
Disinformation and propaganda on social media have attracted the public (Seo,
2014). As we know, disinformation had existed since 1946, where Allport and Postman
(1946) in Pulford (2019) explained that rumor travels when events are important in
individuals’ lives and when the news received about them is either subjective or
ambiguous. It reminds and reflects our current Covid-19 pandemic. According to Ali
(2020), everyone was scared and worried about their own lives. In the meantime, Covid-
19 news was ambiguous and made sense of rumor. Scherr et al. (2021) assert that vague
news impacts negative information. In our contemporary digital world, we called this
misleading news disinformation (Arthur, 2017). We can discern that the confusion of
news consumption that happened in World War I is repeated today. It is indeed relevant
to our present Covid-19 pandemic (Viswanath, Lee, & Pinnamaneni, 2020).
Rumors en masse are challenging to handle. Therefore, social media platforms
like Twitter consider themselves aggregators of information such as disinformation in
the Taliban war propaganda (Bahar, 2020). Unfortunately, the prevalence of social
media platforms has amplified the circulation and outreach of disinformation. Two core
elements of social media, namely web 2.0 and User-Generated Content (UGC),
complicate the information environment. The flow of UGC on the web foundation has
so long supported the spread of information (Zajc, 2015). However, this mechanism
approves disinformation circulation on the public timeline. Disinformation has affected
many aspects of our life such as politic (Freelon & Wells, 2020), law (Craufurd Smith,
2019), health (Chou, Gaysynsky, & Cappella, 2020), social life (Rampersad &
Althiyabi, 2020), and on technology(McDougall, Brites, Couto, & Lucas, 2019).
While most users swamped themselves in the types mentioned above of
disinformation, they were left in awe by pandemic rumors. In times of panic, when life
matters most, words can become believable (Jamil & Appiah-Adjei, 2020). Research by
Guo and Zhang (2020) explained that rumors travel during the time, and individuals’
lives are at stake. Guo (2020) explains that rumors may become conceivable when the
news about them and the ongoing events are ambiguous. Therefore, half-baked news
reporting gave prominence to ambiguity (Koivisto, 2015). Thus, people seem incapable
of comprehending the news.
Sunstein (2014) classifies the spreading mechanism, namely, social cascades and
group polarization. Cascades mechanism ensues as people rely heavily on each other’s
thoughts and conduct. For example, when one feels lacking information, the person
might approve the views of others. A social cascade could develop when a group of
early movers or influencers, or bellwethers, express verbally or physically to signal
others to follow. The second mechanism, group polarization, relates to the homophily
nature of groups. It is when like-minded people assemble. Once the group members
conduct an in-depth discussion of rumors, they would believe it. Not to complicate the
definition, either disinformation or rumors pose similar characters. Cummings and Kong
(2019) verified that rumors and disinformation displayed and delivered malicious
intentions to persuade people to misleading information.
Academics, governments, and private sectors had disinformation in the SARS
outbreak in 2003 (Aaltola, 2012). They have failed to warn us of the disinformation
circulation danger. One main factor is the presence of social media platforms and
private group chats. They have been overrun by pandemic disinformation daily. At the
same time, the public was left to understand and identify rumors by themselves.
Financial and social constraints already burden the masses themselves. The chaotic and
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toxic social media landscape could lead people to give up thinking about and looking
for facts (Mansur, Saragih, Ritonga, & Damayanti, 2021). Society can be easily misled
by make-believe information during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some actual events
supported this proposition. For instance, three 5G masts were set ablaze in some parts of
the UK. The UK society believed that 5G frequency has been causing coronavirus
(Warren, 2020). Likewise, In India, many people started to consume cow dung and
urine. They believe these animal leftovers were an alternative cure to coronavirus, even
cancer (Nath, 2020). Simultaneously, Indonesian society got the disinformation through
WhatsApp groups saying onion could cure Coronavirus or dates fruit may contain
coronavirus from bats (Patrick, 2020).
Therefore, Indonesian face quite ample numbers of disinformation during the
Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Communication and Informatics, through their
website in 2020, detected and fact-checked more than almost 400 coronavirus-related
hoaxes (Kominfo, 2020). The total of hoaxes news about Covid-19 numbers was
collected from early January to the end of March 2020. It suggests that there were 6 to 7
hoaxes on average circulating daily during these three months. Alongside the
distribution of these hoaxes, the public encounters confusion. With more than 150
million Internet users, they used 8 hours on the internet daily through their smartphones.
Most Indonesian news or information sources come from YouTube, WhatsApp, and
Facebook (We Are Social, 2019). Most Indonesian attitudes and traits create particular
concern because of the platforms mentioned earlier unreliable news or information
sources. Therefore, disinformation may spread even faster during the pandemic through
social media. In line with the research of Mansur et al. (2021), the spread of fake news
through social media goes rising because people do not understand the content of the
news.
Disinformation may circulate when false information is consciously shared by
someone to cause disadvantages to others (Krafft & Donovan, 2020). The sharer knows
precisely the information is incorrect but intentionally shares it regardless. At the same
time, mal-information occurs when factual information is shared to cause damage, such
as when someone has intentionally distributed the half-true information to the public to
spark curiosity. On the other side, the interest usually focused on the private life behind
the phenomena (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017). Therefore, Bradshaw and Howard
(2018) reported disinformation as part of computational propaganda in The Global
Disinformation Order from the Oxford Internet Institute. The countries covered in this
report were 70 countries in 2019. In March 2019, on Presidential Election, there were
453 hoaxes on average, and there were 15 hoaxes found daily (Kominfo, 2019). Since
then, disinformation has become part of our social media life in Indonesia. During this
Covid-19 pandemic, hoaxes in the form of rumors have widely spread on social media.
Based on previous research, the researchers aim to map the distribution of
disinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers are trying to find
variations of disinformation from January to March 2020, according to the Kominfo
clarification report. Furthermore, the researchers analyzed hoax content using content
analysis techniques. The content analysis is carried out through rumors theory. The
purpose of this study is to analyze the mapping of disinformation related to the Covid-
19 pandemic.
Mapping Disinformation During the Covid-19 in Indonesia: Qualitative Content Analysis
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Method
This research is a literature review with the subject of a report from the
Directorate General of Informatics Applications, Ministry of Communication and
Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia with the title Hoax Issue Report in 2020. To
map disinformation during Covid-19, the researcher used qualitative content analysis
(Schellekens, Dillen, Dewitte, & Dezutter, 2020). The analysis was carried out to
examine current trends and patterns –the Covid-19 pandemic– as an empirical basis for
monitoring shifts in public opinion. This analytical technique is useful and meaningful
because it relies on coding and categorizing the data related to disinformation in Covid-
19 events based on the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and
Information in 2020 about the Covid-19 hoax report. This study uses a qualitative
descriptive method with a content analysis technique approach as the data required
descriptive explanation. The following are the categories and sub-categories of data
analysis:
Table 1. Categories and Sub-categories of the Data (source: Kominfo, 2020)
No. Categories Sub-categories Code Meaning
1. What: The subject of the People PEP A subject is a person.
hoax’s utterances or
Action ACT The subject is an activity
sentences
or action.
Phenomenon PHE A subject is an event.
Place PLA The subject is a location or
venue.
Medicine MED The subject is drugs or
medical entities.
2. Who: The object or the Figure FIG The object is common
things discussed in the people or laymen.
hoax’s utterances or Very VIP The object is a well-known
sentences Important figure.
Person
Others OTH The object is discussed
other than the things in the
sub-categories.
Alternative ALT The object is an alternative
Medicine cure or practice.
Public Places PUB The object is/are public
places.
Commercial COM The object discussed is/are
Places commercial venues.
Health HFA The objects discussed
Facilities is/are health facilities.
Technology TEC The objects are
technological tools,
devices, and systems.
3. Context: The setting, Health HEA The message of the hoax
meaning, and message conveys health issues
of the hoax’s utterances caused by Covid-19
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or sentences. Security SEC The meaning of the hoax
Measure conveys the action of
preventing and resolving
the Covid-19 spread.
Politics POL The meaning refers to
political and legal issues to
Covid-19 prevention
action.
Racism RAS The setting and message of
the hoax indicate racial
prejudice.
4. Scope: The targeted Local LOC The place mentioned or
place mentioned or implied refers to local
implied in the hoax neighborhood or district
International INT The place mentioned or
implied refers to abroad
countries and locations
National NAT The place mentioned or
implied refers only to
Indonesia.
Regional REG The place mentioned or
implied refers to the
province.
5 Media: The social media Facebook FAB The hoax distribution
platform utilized social media platform is
Facebook.
WhatsApp WHA The hoax distribution
social media platform is
WhatsApp.
Twitter TWI The hoax distribution
social media platform is
Twitter.
Internet NET The hoax distribution
platform is the Internet.
Instagram IGM The hoax distribution
social media platform is
Instagram.
YouTube YOT The hoax distribution
social media platform is
YouTube.
6 Rumors: Types of Dread DRE The rumors implied in the
rumors implied in the hoax incites fear and
hoax uncertainty.
Wish WSH The rumors implied in the
hoax incite optimism.
Wedge WDG The rumors implied in the
hoax provoke conflict.
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Table 1 shows the content analysis procedure carried out through six categories:
what, who, context, scope, media, and rumors. Therefore, we determined the unit of
analysis based on six categories starting from the smallest unit to the largest unit. Data
collection was carried out through reading according to the sub-category in Table 1. The
data that has been obtained were then classified based on the code of each category.
Data collection was carried out through the process of reading and recording the data
related to disinformation in Covid-19. Qualitative content analysis has developed
rigorous coding and analysis techniques to obtain validity and reliability (Lebed, 2019).
Therefore, this study focuses on creating a bigger picture of the Covid-19 phenomenon
embedded in the context (see Table 1). Thus, the procedure carried out is based on
Fraenkel and Wallen (2007); namely, the study aims to map the categories of
disinformation Covid-19. Then define the terms what, who, context, scope, media, and
rumors into sub-categories. The data we get is through the official website of the
Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia. Then the
selected data is folded into a corpus to facilitate analysis using codes.
Results and Discussion
The research reveals that during the Covid-19 pandemic, hoaxes were mentioned
mostly by common people (165, 46%). While in the following position, there are action-
related hoaxes (62, 17,3%). The gap between PEP and ACT could become an indication
that Covid-19 rumors were directed to human-to-human infection. The rumors
elaborated mostly on suspected people contracting Covid-19 and the death toll from
Covid-19. Simultaneously, action-related rumors like social distancing, regional lock-
down, and rapid testing seemed to be the second priority. This phenomenon may relate
to the continuum of emergency during a pandemic disaster. In line with Stanley et al.
(2020), Covid-19-related hoaxes distribution mentioning people were clearly on the
alert phase. The alert phase refers to how people and officials respond to the increase in
pandemic cases. Thus, during this phase, the Covid-19 hoaxes prevailed and were
widely distributed. Human to human infection is a reality during this phase. Society was
afraid, but some hoax purveyors spread dread by circulating false human-to-human
infection claims through social media(Susilo, Yustitia, & Afifi, 2020). In addition to the
society fear their life from the Covid-19 virus, peculiar phenomena (PHE) were also
visible (57, 15,9%). In this analysis, abnormal, mythical, or even illogical phenomena
happened. For instances, a talking infant claiming egg could cure Covid-19 (348);
allegedly mass burial of Covid-19 victims (347); 5G bandwidth was the cause of Covid-
19 spread (260); Coronavirus was found on toilet tissue (206); some Chinese citizen
converted to Islam as they were cured of Covid-19 (127).
Referring to what Ali (2020) defined as rationalizing rumors, these irrational
messages circulating during the pandemic are no strange phenomena. During the
pandemic, people’s minds were positively charged and burdened with fear and worry.
Therefore, irrational rumors were not there to be analyzed. Instead, these false claims
become rationalization, even fascination for some people. Although indirectly related,
hoaxes mentioning medicine (MED) had undergone rationalization (34, 9.5%). Some of
the medicine hoaxes were rationalized as alternative cures (see Table 2).
To compare with, Table 3 shows the number of Covid-19 hoaxes related to the
subject of sentences, speeches, and even pictures, which are high (157, 52%). More than
half of the Covid-19 hoaxes were aimed at the general public than figures (58, 16.2%).
They know their lives are also at stake during the pandemic. Society may share the
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belief in saving themselves during the alert phase rather than caring and focusing on
figures, such as the President, artists, and religious figures.
Table 2. Numbers of Disinformation Based on What Category
No. Code Σn %
1. People (PEP) 165 46
2. Action (ACT 62 17.3
3. Phenomena (PHE) 57 15.9
4. Place (PLA) 41 11.4
5. Medicine (MED) 34 9.5
Table 3. Numbers of Disinformation Based on Who Category
No. Code Σn %
1. Figures (FIG) 157 52.2
2. Very Important Person (VIP) 58 16.2
3. Others (OTH) 38 12.6
4. Alternative Medicine (ALT) 32 10.6
5. Public Place (PLA) 30 10
6. Commercial Place (COM) 26 8.6
7. Health Facilities (HFA) 14 3.9
8. Technology (TEC) 4 1.1
Based on the content analysis results in table 4, most of the hoaxes contexts
associated with Covid-19 were about health. This phenomenon was as expected. During
a pandemic, people would seek health advice, information, and healthcare. The health-
related context from the hoaxes were more than 60% (234). Though placed second, the
context related to security measures (80, 22,3%) also indirectly related to health.
Table 4. Numbers of Disinformation Based on Context Category
No. Code Σn %
1. Health (HEA) 234 65.2
2. Security Measure (SEC) 80 22.3
3. Politics (POL) 23 6.4
4. Racism (RAS) 22 6.1
Referring to table 4, the hoaxes from HEA and SEC are as follows:
1. Health-related
a. There was a suspect symptomatic individual in Kraton Batang Regional
hospital (223)
b. Tom Hanks was confirmed dead after contracting the Covid-19 virus (216)
c. Daniel Radcliff had contracted coronavirus (192)
d. Coronavirus had been spreading in Jakarta because of pork consumption (175)
e. Wet tissue can replace your mask (155)
2. Security measures
a. The closure of Gianyar road in Bali (350)
b. Sukabumi region required a letter of health notice to enter (344)
c. The Pondok Indah Mall closure because one Covid suspect had entered it (333)
d. A market in Cianjur had to be closed because of Covid-19 (322)
e. Closure and disinfecting in a market in Madiun East Java (286)
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Both health-related and security measure hoaxes eventually related to each other
when someone has allegedly contracted Covid-19 while entering commercial venues.
These places would soon be reported as having a closure or disinfection prevention by
spraying disinfectant solution. While politically-laden and racist rumors also had
something frequently apparent. The POL and RAS hoaxes’ findings related to; 1)
government policy and action; 2) and Chinese ethnicity accusation. Some examples are
as follows: Prabowo has gone during the Coronavirus pandemic (309), the Indonesian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a lock-down action (277), The medicine that the
President has purchased from China are dangerous (334), and Chinese tourists have
been freely entered and doing transit flight in Indonesia (173).
Further, the majority of local scope hoaxes usually suggested closedown or
disinfection spraying activities. The regional context rumors were 157 hoaxes or 43.7%
among the 395 hoaxes. These local regions represented almost the entire Indonesian
archipelago. For international scope rumors ranging from countries like China, India,
Italy, Singapore, and Australia (121, 33.7%). These countries usually have high reports
on Covid-19 victims. Most of these international rumors have been contextualized
linguistically to Bahasa Indonesia. In other words, they have been translated. Finally, in
the third position, national-context hoaxes have also been circulating during the early
stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia (52, 14.5%).
Based on content analysis, there were two leading platforms rumors about Covid-
19 spread. The first was through Facebook (142, 39.6%) and slightly lower was through
WhatsApp (122, 34%). Both platforms hold almost 70% of the rumor distribution.
Other platforms that had been detected to spread these rumors were Twitter (48, 13.4%),
Internet or online news portal (27, 7.5%), Instagram (10, 2.8%), and YouTube (10, 2.8).
Regarding the numbers of disinformation based on rumors, more than half were about
dread (67.1%) as the report of hoaxes tracking from Hoax Issue Report in 2020 used in
this research was at the on set of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Rumors
conveying fear of Covid-19 contraction and even death were common from January to
the end of March 2020. These were the months in which Covid-19 had been globally
spread. And during these months also, many countries had been conducting many
security measures to prevent Covid-19 infection. From the need to regulate social
distancing, washing hands, using sanitary hand spray to regional lock-down was
apparent. These activities would have indicted the fear of Covid-19 infarction.
Along with dread rumors, wishful (70, 19%) and wedge (48, 13.3%) rumors
circulated in social media. Wishful rumors during the Covid-19 pandemic contained
hope and dreams of remedial treatment and alternative medicine. While wedge rumors
provoked or incite hate toward political preferences, religious belief, ethnicity, or
character assassination. So those people who received this wedge rumor could feel
angry or hate toward the person or things implied. Though both rumorss numbers were
indistinct to dread rumors, either rumors were circulating to the shroud, even more, the
toxic information ecosystem during Covid-19 pandemic.
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Figure 1. Mapping of Hoaxes
Figure 1 shows 359 Covid-19 pandemic hoaxes in Indonesia from January to the
end of March 2020 in each category (see Table 1). This mapping can convey the
number of hoaxes for each category and sub-category during the three months of
observation. Based on figure 1, the HEA and DRE sub-categories show a high level of
hoaxes. HEA relates to a health issue, and DRE is a dread issue. The mapping hoax data
during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia because the most common hoaxes from the
analysis in January to the end of March 2020 were about health issues targeting fear-
mongering and implying the general public in local areas with Facebook and WhatsApp
as a distribution platform. The second most common hoax of the analysis is alternative
medicine and treatment for Covid-19 by implementing global and national security
action activities regulated and influenced by key figures from the information
distributed through various platforms. The least that can pose a potential danger are
hoaxes that incite hatred and sentiment against political preferences, ethnicity, and
religious beliefs that threaten harmony at the regional level through various social media
platforms. Therefore, a gap is needed in the accessibility of online health information
through increasing eHealth literacy to the public(Paek & Hove, 2012). Paige, Krieger,
and Stellefson (2017) research shows that older adults with low eHealth have high trust
in Facebook but low trust in online support groups. So, it is not surprising that the level
of hoax spread about Covid-19 via Facebook reached (142, 39.6%), much higher than
Twitter.
This study’s number of hoaxes cannot describe hoaxes’ impact during the ongoing
pandemic in Indonesia. However, these numbers can give a glimpse into a situation
where rumors or hoaxes are intoxicating the public social media timeline. So, this
study’s results are in line with Collins et al. (2020) that one of the potentials is to spread
disinformation through social media. Rumors that spread fear and uncertainty circulated
massively, especially among the surrounding communities. This research also occurred
in Indonesia, China, and Russia, namely spreading rumors online (Pulford, 2019).
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter or group chat apps like WhatsApp
contribute to scams’ constant danger. The need to educate people with digital and media
literacy is imperative(Spires, Paul, & Kerkhoff, 2018). Lack of skills checks can lead to
the way people recognize and distribute. Failure to understand information can also be
the cause. Lack of critical thinking in education also tends to contribute to a lack of
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identification of information. This phenomenon worsened during the Covid-19
pandemic, while the government and journalists still struggled to verify and distribute
reliable health information(Perreault & Perreault, 2021). This research also shows that
mapping disinformation categories are important for society, especially social media
users, to implement the eHealth literacy revolution (Malone, Jo, & Clifton, 2017)
In addition, hoaxes related to Covid-19 do not only damage the timeline of public
social media. They have also crept into people’s minds with fear. It is in line with the
research results from Viswanath, Lee, and Pinnamaneni (2020) that disinformation amid
the Covid-19 pandemic can cause public distrust of the government, media, and even
information about each other from various sources distributed on social media
facilitated by users. Generated Contents. Meanwhile, the government and media also
broadcast their version of Covid-19 information; as Allport and Portman (1946) in
Pulford (2019) illustrate, rumors spread in large numbers when data is widely
distributed. They show how rumors about the Pearl Harbor attack developed rapidly
after the newspaper published the tragedy. However, this study shows that rumors that
have occurred in the era of technological advancement have accelerated the spread of
disinformation on a large scale (see Table 4). 65.2% of Covid-19 disinformation related
to health occurred, such as “wet tissue can replace your mask”. This is due to panic and
a lack of health literacy in the community. The information obtained is not analyzed
first and is immediately disseminated (Chesser, Burke, Reyes, & Rohrberg, 2015).
The fears implicit in the Covid-19 disinformation have projected people’s
emotional state because Allport and Portman (Pulford, 2019) pointed out that when
people have less information about their environment, they fail to objectively and
impartially understand any information (Saurwein & Spencer-Smith, 2020). The
misleading information on Covid-19 also shows this projection that people who fear
their lives will contract the coronavirus will fall easy prey to disinformation(Shirish,
Srivastava, & Chandra, 2021). During a pandemic, an emergency is supposed to alert
the public, but disinformation exacerbates the situation. This has had a very significant
impact on society. The impact is fear of the local situation, government regulations, and
a mistaken belief in medicine and alternative medicine.
Therefore, the study indicates that it is time for the government, academics, and
society to improve eHealth literacy (Li, 2018). eHealth literacy can empower people to
understand health-related information better. Also, this study shows that inaccurate and
misleading health information often occurs on the Internet, especially through
Facebook. Therefore, people need the competence to take advantage of technology in
improving eHealth literacy(Chesser et al., 2015). On the other side, the study offers the
government, especially the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, has increased
socialization to the public, especially through social media related to hoax news reports
on the Kominfo website(Shirish et al., 2021). This is to increase public awareness and
information literacy against disinformation during the Covid 19 pandemic so that the
public can sort out which information is trusted and can be disseminated.
Conclusion
Based on hoax news reports published through the Ministry of Communications
and Informatics website, the highest hoax contexts are health issues. In addition, the
disinformation that spread during the Covid 19 pandemic made the public afraid and
panicked. The implication of this study suggests several recommendations in response
to the urgency of handling disinformation during the Covid-19 in Indonesia, such as
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initiating digital and media literacy in the national education system. The present study
can provide a clearer picture to the government and the public about the spread of
hoaxes during a pandemic. This research offers the government to work together and
carry out fact-checking practices with local stakeholders, especially in rural areas. On
the other side, local communities must monitor, check the truth, and clarify
misinformation in their community. Each local community from the district, sub-
district, and local community must organize fact-checking the disinformation. Further
research is suggested to conduct a more thorough, longitudinal, and comprehensive
study of disinformation mapping during Covid-19.
Acknowledgements
This research results from collaborative research between the University of
Indonesia, the State University of Jakarta, and the University of Padjajaran. Therefore,
we would like to thank the Chancellors of the University of Indonesia, the State
University of Jakarta, and the University of Padjajaran. They have provided material
and moral support.
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